India’s coffee exports stood at Rs 535.83 crore in April this year in value terms on better realization following firm global prices, as per data compiled by Coffee Board. This is a rise of over 11% compared to Rs 480.77 crore in the corresponding period of last year. On the other hand in volume terms, coffee shipments from India, the world’s fifth biggest exporter, fell by over 4% at 31,836 tonnes in April this year from 33,211 tonnes of shipments in the year-ago period.
India exports coffee largely to Italy, Germany, Belgium, Jordan, Turkey and Russia, among others. The harvesting of coffee in the country has got over now. Overall domestic production is expected to be in line with the board’s estimate of 311,500 tonnes for 2013-14 crop year (October-September), down by 2.1% from 318,200 tonnes produced in 2012-13.
Owing to concerns over drought conditions in Brazil and an outbreak of coffee leaf rust plant disease in Central America, the global coffee prices have already risen by more than 80% this year. During last week of April, arabica-quality coffee prices at New York had touched 219 US cents on April 24, the highest since February 2012. Robusta futures price for July had risen to $2,156 a tonne from $2,086 a tonne.